The Rackets Book Series
The Drug War:
A Trillion Dollar Con Game
The war on drugs is a microcosm of far greater systemic problems involving criminal justice and politics. This book shines a spotlight on the bureaucratic and corporate special interests that are fighting to keep this disastrous policy in place. Volume I goes far beyond the conventional debate about the war on drugs and exposes several hidden agendas. To name a few, the U.S. government wields the war on drugs as its Trojan horse for imperialist foreign policy. Ironically, the same government has supported many of the world's most notorious drug traffickers.
Dealing From the Bottom of the Deck:
Hypocritical Gambling Laws Enrich Crooked Politicians, A Select-Few Casinos, and the Mob
A deeper look at the gambling debate unearths rampant flaws in the U.S. political system and ridiculous double standards. There are remarkable parallels between Wall Street and the gambling industry. The same public officials who pioneered various anti-gambling laws also helped create the circumstances leading to the near-bankruptcies of the “Too Big to Fail” banks.
Decriminalized Prostitution:
The Common Sense Solution
This book tackles one of the world's most misunderstood topics and shatters various moral crusaders' convenient narrative. The average American will be stunned by the international perspective on this topic and how the U.S. government uses the pretext of human trafficking to enforce antiquated laws while turning a bling eye to some of the most horrific examples of human trafficking.
Summary - Brian Saady’s three-part book series, Rackets, presents the case for the legalization of drugs and gambling, along with the decriminalization of prostitution. Rackets exposes the counterproductive results, underlying corruption, hypocrisy, and abuses of power associated with the prohibition of these three vices.
This series isn't limited to those three issues. It exposes other “rackets,” i.e the mafia-like tactics of big government and crony capitalists. In many cases, the behavior of politicians, business people, lobbyists, and bureaucrats can best be described as organized crime. Suffice it to say, these books will convince you that our political and criminal justice systems are, in many ways, inadvertently designed to fail...like rackets.
This scholarly book series isn’t salacious, nor does it encourage a debaucherous lifestyle. Furthermore, these aren't frivolous issues. Examining these three topics reveals a great deal about our history, culture, political system, and much more. That’s why the Rackets book series, at times, touches upon so many other topics, including civil liberties, crony capitalism, geopolitics, human rights, economics, criminal justice, political science, criminology, and more. There are several shocking revelations in these books. Fortunately, the author included thousands of sources in a very reader-friendly format.
Review
- Eternal Truth: People and institutions - including government - act in their own economic self-interest. (Sorry to shock you.) So that is how government, which is a huge special-interest group, has been acting - from its inception.
In that regard, things like mind-altering and sometimes addicting drugs, prostitution and gambling have always been present in every society. But if government makes them illegal, it spawns a big bureaucracy to enforce those laws of prohibition. And that necessarily increases the size, cost and power of government, which government likes. But if the products are regulated and controlled, then two things happen. First the Al Capones and pimps of those worlds will lose so much money that they will probably go out business and, second, those products will be delivered more safely, and will also be taxed. And through all of that, the amount of drugs, prostitution and gambling will most likely stay about the same. So what's not to like?
This is what Brian Saady shows so forcefully and completely in his trilogy - which is a strong and healthy addition to the "common wisdom." Read it, and you will agree.
Judge James P. Gray (Ret.)
Author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed" (Temple University Press, 2d edition, 2012) and 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President.
